Cars on the Lanes – Translating car patterns into music

From Brazilian multimedia artist Jarbas Agnelli, this is Cars on the Lanes, an experiment to find and translate the music in patterns around us. Agnelli writes:

Since everything moves (from galaxies to atoms) and every moving pattern can be read as numbers or notes, then everything contains music. When we cross this with the human spirit, and combine those patterns in a pleasant way, we have the chance to transform them in art. That’s the idea behind this project. On this first test, I used cars on a New York freeway, and choose small loops from several minutes of footage, picking special moments when the elements can be read as interesting musical phrases… The arrangement will come from the patterns themselves.

Bees near their hive. Kids at recess. People emerging from the subway. What patterns around your house, school, or neighborhood would you choose to make music with?

The musical translation of random patterns of nature or mankind. Since everything moves (from galaxies to atoms) and every moving pattern can be read as numbers or notes, then everything contains music. When we cross this with the human spirit, and combine those patterns in a pleasant way, we have the chance to transform them in art. That's the idea behind this project. On this first test, I used cars on a New York freeway, and choose small loops from several minutes of footage, picking special moments when the elements can be read as intersting musical phrases. No speed changes. No effects whatsoever. Just plain trial and error. Different from the original Birds on the Wires video, I will not add my own arrangement over the captured pattern.

The arrangement will come from the patterns themselves. Several ones, layered and combined, with no interference, but the curation process.